STOP PRESS:
Sunday 12th August 2012 - James Fairbank cruises to victory, making it look easy...the full story to follow soon.
Race report:
After a decent result at the final round of the
Hog Hill Summer Series I needed 9 points for my second cat license so I
was aiming for third or better as I lined up at the ERRL Mid-Suffolk road
race. The 10km circuit was a mixture of main road, twisty B-roads and a
finish line at the top of a half mile long drag. The race consisted of
seven laps of the circuit and started fairly sedately but two primes
stretched things out a bit and a group of five went away on lap four.
We had to work to bring them back but eventually caught them at the
bottom of the hill with two laps to go. I had a dig up the hill but the
bunch came with me so drifted back before going back to the front as we
ascended the hill the penultimate time. Turning onto the windy main
road I span over to a Maldon rider who'd attacked and kept pushing when
he peeled off. I quickly got 50 meters and put my head down hoping that
no-one would want to bring the bunch over on the last lap and started
to come to terms with the fact that I'd have to ride 9k on my own to the
finish. I made it into the B-roads about 100 meters up on the group
and lost sight of them, I tried to keep as smooth as possible through
the corners and get my breath back so that I'd have something left for
the final climb. The road opens out a bit at the bottom of the circuit
& I saw that the bunch had made up some ground, determined not to
look behind again I buried myself up the final climb and realised I'd
won it with about 20 meters to go.
I can now join Ben Brown and Keir Apperley in the orange numbers at Hog Hill, a mixed blessing...
James Fairbank
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